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Mark Wheeler
Luke 1:1-4, 26-56
“We Believe in God: Ode to Joy”
Third Sunday of Advent, 12/13/2020
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
This week we turn to Luke’s writing which is an account in two acts: the Gospel Good News of Jesus and then the story of the early church–the “Jesus community”, the Acts of the Apostles.
Whether you were a Jew or Gentile in those days, becoming a part of this illegal early Christian movement could bring punishment for your allegiance. Surely the message in both Luke and Isaiah that the downcast, lowly, and oppressed would rise up is a welcome and inspirational account. Like the Jewish exiled people of Isaiah’s time and like the early Christians in Acts, we also sometimes wonder where God is in our suffering. We long to hear the promise that a reason for joyful praise of good news on the way!
Open with “Light of the World”
Holy One, we thank You for the glimpses we catch of Your gift of the depths of joy.
Even in the midst of fear, of challenge, of struggle – even when we are not sure of Your presence,
ignite the flame of joy within us.
Help us face the silence of unknowing and embrace it as the pregnant pause before joyful new beginnings. Amen.
Let’s take a second to greet each other, and those in the room, look at the camera and say HI to your friends who are at home. Tell your loved ones, “May the Joy of Christ be with you.”
Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.
For those who made it into the building this morning – thank you for wearing your masks and following the seating and walking protocols. We do this not to protect ourselves from others, but to protect others from ourselves. Because we love each other, we wear masks and keep distance to keep each other safe from this “invisible potential enemy”. COVID numbers are way up in our area – let’s not give them an opportunity to climb even higher. Our Elders are listening to CDC guidelines and deciding on what seems best practices for each others’ safety. We love you, and we want everyone to be and to stay well.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Feel free to laugh at our efforts … and pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
Listen now and join in as Linda Tufto leads our reading of our Isaiah prophecy – and those at home, if you have Advent Candles, light three candles and keep them near you in this time of worship and prayer – as we light our Advent Wreath.
Our song of praise today sings of the amazing joy our Lord offers us! – Joy to the World – sung by Chan and Sherry Park.
Through the Written Word,
And endorsed by our spoken word,
May we know Your Living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Call to Worship from Isaiah comes late in the book and he has moved to words about rebuilding the city walls and the Temple in Jerusalem after the exile. The work to “remove barriers from my people’s road” is a long haul in terms of reconstructing the entrenched roads of injustice we have created in our society. We must continue to “survey, survey!” We must continue to tend to the hearts that are crushed. Joy comes in our work, step-by-step, to break down barriers and strength comes in trust that God is working alongside us, inviting us to keep checking in about our own penchant to steer the road off course again and again.
Who knows who is in the mood to rejoice about progress related to the pandemic on this 3rd Sunday of Advent, but like the community to whom Isaiah wrote, we know we will still be mourning and in need of words of comfort. And like those in exile, we need to look ahead and trust that there will be reasons to praise. God says, “For those who mourn, I will create a reason for praise… I will heal them.”
We turn to Luke’s origin story this week. Luke is a journalist and this longest book of the four Gospels details the events of Jesus’s birth as an important way of understanding who Jesus is. It is also a way to help non-Jews get “the facts,” not just the rumors, so they can see Jesus’s saving presence for them as well.
To these fledgling new Christian communities, Mary’s Magnificat would have read like a rallying protest speech, calling for justice and putting powerful words in the mouth of a self-proclaimed “servant.” Some in those early communities would have heard their own occupation reflected in that word.
Joy – deep human thriving – can happen in the midst of oppression when people are inspired to raise their voice, to raise up to their full height and proclaim their worth.
Listen here to the Word of God … Luke 1:1-4, 26-56 …. —- [The screen will show this passage.]
1 1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. …
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
Two weeks ago I discovered a documentary Following the Ninth – film about the global impact of Beethoven’s final symphony. Written in 1824, near the end of Beethoven’s life, the Ninth Symphony was composed by a man with little to be thankful for.
Sick, alienated from almost everyone, and completely deaf, Beethoven had never managed to find love, nor create the family he’d always wanted. And yet, despite this, he managed to create an anthem of joy that embraces the transcendence of beauty over suffering.
Celebrated to this day for its ability to heal, repair, and bring people together across great divides, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has become an anthem of liberation and hope that has inspired many around the world. Who knows the more familiar name of this symphonic masterpiece? [Ode to Joy]
Listen to this list of some of the places and times Ode to Joy has been used to celebrate justice and hope over injustice and doom, just in the last 30 years or so:
- At Tiananmen Square in 1989, students played the Ninth Symphony over loudspeakers as the army came in to crush their struggle for freedom.
- In Chile, women living under the Pinochet dictatorship sang Ode to Joy at torture- prisons, where men inside took hope when they heard their voices.
- As the Berlin Wall came down in December 1989, it collapsed to the sound of Leonard Bernstein conducting Beethoven’s Ninth as an “Ode to Freedom.”
- In Japan each December, the Ninth Symphony is performed hundreds of times, often with 10,000 people in the chorus. The Following the Ninth documentary gives us insight into the heightened importance of this massive communal Ninth, known as “Daiku,” in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
Luke’s Christmas narrative, most well known for its peace and hope as Linus Van Pelt recites this story on the school stage in Charlie Brown’s Christmas special, is filled with joy! – The angelic announcements are joy-filled! The encounter with Elizabeth brings joy to Elizabeth, and to the 6-months-along fetus John-the-Baptist (remember, he leapt when Mary entered the house! Mary’s Magnificat sings her joy to God!
Like the Isaiah 57 passage we read, Luke 1 doubles down, triples down, on that theme of joy! Even in the midst of very troubled times!
Beethoven’s Ode to Joy was written in his final years of lonely, sickly, deaf-misery!
The beginning of that documentary features Billy Bragg, a British punk rocker (who sees himself as a “common man” self-trained musician) who wrote three new verses to the Ode to Joy. They are, in some ways, a “magnificat” for our day.
Luke’s gift to us with his Christmas story is the gift of joy!
As we light the candles on our advent wreath, the four candles remind us that Jesus brings peace, love, joy, and hope into the world. It is true, “The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin, the Light of the world is Jesus!“
As we move into a time of prayer together – let me talk with our kids for a minute – all-y’all can listen in:
This Advent we’re going to learn a little sign-language – because that’s a beautiful way to bring light into the darkness of Beethoven’s deafness. This year is the 100th anniversary of the great song “This Little Light of Mine”. Let’s sing it quietly, and let’s add the sign language that goes with it:
Prayer Page –
Leader: We believe that we have sometimes been silent in the face of injustice AND
People: We believe that we are capable of raising our voices and insisting on goodness for all.
We believe that we have been afraid of feeling deeply, making our joy small AND
We believe that the deep joy of community can always be present, even in hard times.
We believe that sometimes we wonder if we can make a difference AND
We believe that small acts of kindness and help do make a real difference.
We believe, even when we are discouraged.
We believe, that when we are discouraged,
raising our voices for justice will offer joy to the world!
Believe, with a joyful heart!
Believe, and shine your light!
Believe, because the song we sing is sung for all!
And now let the weak say, “I am strong;”
let the poor say, “I am rich
because of what our God has done for us.”
Believe!
And now – call out a name, a place, a people, a situation, you are lifting to the Lord in prayer …. “Have mercy on us, O Lord.” [Lord’s Prayer] Amen.
– Christmas Joy Offering & Pledge Cards and our Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or Click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
This Advent Season – while we all are suffering to some degree because of the COVID pandemic and all of the hoopla and restrictions that goes with it, our closing song is what is known as Christmas Carols of Resistance:
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which is the basis of the tune for our hymn “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” has been a powerful witness to the human spirit to overcome adversity in many instances around the globe. British punk rock star, Billy Bragg, wrote an alternative translation of the original German choral score for a school teacher to teach the children in her classroom, and it soon became a popular anthem, even being performed for the Queen of England. In these words you can hear the call to resist division, to raise our voices, to “furnish every heart with joy and banish all hatred for good.”
Expedition Song – Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee – with some added verses at the beginning! …. led by Diana and Deanna singing (our suggestion is no congregational singing, but if you’re wearing your masks appropriately, who would know who is singing?).
Next Sunday, like we did today – please RSVP to us if you plan to attend so we can properly set up – and please CALL IN or email or text – so we can share with you what the plans will be – whether we will be allowed to continue to meet or not.
We close with this benediction: In this Advent Season of waiting know this …
We wait for justice but we do not wait to work for change;
We wait for restored health but we do not wait to work to heal;
We wait for wholeness but we do not wait to work at binding brokenness;
We wait for peace but we do not wait to work to eliminate hatred.
And so, my friends, like bells ringing out the news
that God is ever-present with us,
fill the night left by sadness with messages of joy.
Go into your lives humming the tunes that keep that joy alive in you
and that spur you on in your work of justice and reconciliation.
Raise your voices and repeat after me…
“We believe even when!”
“We believe even when!”
Amen!
Resources:
McFee, Marcia; Worship Design Studio; Advent 2020.
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